Zero tolerance on last day of school may be a bit much

Friday, June 13, 2014

There is zero tolerance. And then there’s zero tolerance.

On Wednesday at the Oxford Area High School there was some muscle-flexing going on by the administration; all over shoes.

It seems that nearly three dozen podiatric desperados were sent packing to the principal’s office after breaking the rules when it comes to fashion of the feet. In other words, no sandals, no slippers, no flip-flops.

And so it is and the crime landed them in the sin bin instead of the classroom where finals were taking place. After all, it was the final day of school — with finals to be taken.

A mom of one of the offenders — Teresa Rosa — said she received a text message from her daughter around 8 a.m. informing her that she was sent to the principal’s office because of her sandals and was no longer permitted to take her finals.

“She had sandals on, so it wasn’t like she had anything provocative,” Rosa told reporter Candice Monhollan. “You’re looking at probably 25 to 35 kids that were sent to the office today because they had the wrong shoes on, denied their final and told they could either take a zero on their final or they could come back Thursday or Friday to take (it). My daughter said at one point there were so many kids in there that they were sitting on each other’s laps and all over the floor.”

However, it should be noted that indeed, according to the high school’s dress code, the “entire foot must be covered at all times with practical footwear.” Flip-flops, sandals, slippers, clogs without backs and anything with a steel toe are not permitted for safety reasons.

“A couple of students decided that the dress code didn’t apply to them, which it did,” said Oxford Superintendent David Woods. “There were some kids, as there could be any day of the week, with some violations. They just followed their procedure on dress code violations. In no way is anyone denied a final.

“The closest thing to the truth there would be is some kids may have elected to reschedule their final.

“It’s not our practice, necessarily, depending on what the final may be, to have them take it outside of that environment. The numbers that are represented are a little skewed. It was a minor thing.”

Minor, perhaps, to Superintendent Woods. He isn’t the one who now has to arrange transportation to the school for anyone who violated the foot laws.

Teresa Rosa says she thinks the whole situation was an overreaction by the school.

“When they had to go to the bathroom, they were escorted by a security guard to the bathroom because they were told they were in violation of the dress code,” Rosa said. “They were basically treated like a criminal because they had sandals on.”

We agree. And let’s face it — if some of the teachers didn’t feel it was serious enough to send all of the offenders marching to the principal’s office, then was it really that big a deal on the last day of school?

Rosa’s daughter even asked if she would be able to take her final in the office, but was denied by Principal Christopher Dormer. Rosa said she is aware of the need for rules and dress codes in the school, but said she and her daughter feel rules should be equally enforced.

Actually we think on the last day of a long school year filled with snow days, snow delays, ice storms and the like, a little common sense over flip-flops and sandals would have gone a long way. Now the school year gets to end on a sour note.